Phantom Doctrine is an espionage strategy game developed by the Polish CreativeForge Games – a studio known for creating such games as Hard West and Ancient Space.

Plot

In the Phantom Doctrine, the action is set in 1983. A player gets to lead The Cabal – a secret intelligence organization set up to stop a worldwide plot designed to take control over the world by causing local conflicts between certain countries.

The authors have developed a rich story, which presents an alternative version of the Cold War; however, the campaign features also a number of real events and characters, which increases the sense of authenticity in the game.

Mechanics

In the Phantom Doctrine, a player is bound to spend most of the time completing the turn-based missions, during which they commands a team of over a dozen secret agents. The game offers a significant leeway when it comes to strategizing, by providing a player with a wide range of available actions. One can mount frontal attacks with heavy weaponry as well as assume the covert approach to complete the assignments.

Between the missions, a player has to manage The Cabal by dispatching agents on reconnaissance missions, recruiting new operatives from different intelligence agencies and criminal syndicates, training them, and assembling teams, which have to placed all around the world – this allows a player to call for reinforcements during a mission, when necessary.

It is important for a player to acquire weapons, establish new relations, and conduct investigations, which might grant him access to new missions, resources, and technology – this not only includes diverse pieces of gear but also interrogation techniques, brainwashing methodologies, and chemical boosters of agents' physique. As befits an espionage game, it is necessary to forge documents and provide one's subordinates with fake identities as well as appearance alterations.

Phantom Doctrine has been designed in a way allowing the player to replay it multiple times without feeling bored. The gameplay is dynamic – the global situation tends to change rapidly as a result of player's actions. Moreover, many elements, such as the characters' bios, names, intelligence data, and enemy locations on maps are procedurally generated. Upon starting his adventure, a player has to choose whether his character has worked before for CIA or KGB – this decision affects the gameplay significantly. After completing the game for the first time, players get at their disposal a third character, with which they can start the New Game Plus mode.

Our guide to Phantom Doctrine contains a comprehensive source of information about this built-up turn-based strategy. Find out what mechanics rule the gameplay, how to expose foreign agents, how to earn a lot of money and how to use the tactical map.

We looked at Steam sales of recent Polish games. The list contains no shortage of hits (such as World War 3 or Thief Simulator), but also some flops (such as Dying Light: Bad Blood and My Memory of Us).